Links to page Catagories

July 22, 2013

Where has the Summer Gone

Time seems to have just slipped by without blogging here for a couple of months. I have myself spread a little to thin lately and having troubles keeping up everywhere. So lets just try and catch up on the last couple of months.

Sheaba has had lots of visitors this past 2 months. Each time she seems to come out of her scared shell and begins to act like normal dog. But then when her animal friends leave, she reverts back to being so scared of many things. I know this summer has been hard for her with flying tarps, construction around the house and an old screen tent I covered our back porch with. She is so much worse when the winds come up. But when another dog is here she seems so much more confident about her surroundings. Her biggest joy is her two walks a day. The rest of the time she prefers to spend in the house under our dinning room table where it is quiet and secure from the winds and flapping tarps.

Her best friend is now Cole who comes to stay for a few nights every now and then. She loves to be chased and play with him.

We had an unexpected visitor for almost a month. My neighbours little donkey I came across while on my walk in the forest and she followed me home. We loved her so much and she went for walk with us everyday and was spoiled getting brushed and fly wipe put on to keep the bugs away. Her name is Annie. I know her owner wanted her back so after a month I finally walked her the 3 miles back to her ranch. We love Annie, but the extra work was taking away from other projects for me. Like blogging…

During the time Annie the donkey was staying with us her owner and dear friend of mine for over 30 years had been diagnosed with cancer. She was in the hospital for 2 weeks so during that time I had her smallest dog Jack, who was soon getting spoiled with walks as well everyday. Yes the donkey Annie, the small dog Jack and Sheaba our dog would go for 2 walks a day all together. Also during this time I was going to my friends house and feeding the rest of her dogs, turtle and watering all her plants.

My friend has since come home, but for how long I don’t know, so if I disappear for awhile again it’s because I am concentrating my energy and time helping her.Please pray for her……

I did manage in middle of June to get away during all the animal care, hubby stayed home to care for them while I went to my nieces wedding in Redmond Oregon. I so can’t wait till I get my new camera to take really good photos. But I do think I caught some pretty good moments.

Our whole family out on the dance floor at the wedding. I was up on the balcony spying on them. My sister did get one of me in the upper left hand corner during a Bob Seger Song. I can’t help myself playing air guitar and singing. I spent a whole week there and it was so special to bond with my great nieces and nephews as will as seeing all the rest of the family.

While down there I really wanted to get at least one good long hike in. So I went to near by Smith Rock State Park and did an almost 4 mile hike in 2 hours. I was alone and took the Misery Ridge hike up over the rocks the cropped out of the landscape. It was almost straight up for a mile the trail making switchbacks the whole way up along with some stairs. I was so happy to know I could still do such a climb in elevation. The view from the top was awesome. Then I went back down the other side switching back and forth to get to the bottom.

Smith Rock State park is very popular for rock climbing and I was able to see many climbers ascending rock faces. But mostly the scenery on the trail that followed around the rocks and river was so beautiful. The whole area of Redmond Oregon is filled with so many things to do and see.

This summer has been designated as a work summer. So many repairs and maintenance had to be addressed. So hubby has been working 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for almost 2 months on our deck project and fixing leaks in roofs. The deck project is taking so long as he is cutting all the lumber on our sawmill, which for every few boards cut, it breaks down and needs a few hours of repair. We could have bought the lumber, but he is so stubborn and wanted to use the logs we had cut last summer for lumber. The deck isn’t finished yet only a new extension addition we added to the old deck. All the old decking still needs replacing, but as the weather has been clear and hot it was a perfect time to get on with the roofing project. Another week and it should be done. Then to our deck on our greenhouse which needs replacing as that is leaking into the bedroom below. Then it will be back to finishing our deck at the house. Poor hubby, he made a comment the other day saying “how much can body take” I knew he was getting tired of all the work. I have helped when and where I can, but most he has to do. I have another nieces wedding end of August in Oregon again, I am hoping to get hubby away for a little holiday together.

I have been keeping busy with my flowers and garden. As hubby was busy I had to weed the whole garden and am doing all the lawn mowing. I did not get my automatic watering timers up this year, so watering takes a lot of my time. But with the heat and sun we have had for a month now everything is in full of color.

Between all the work around here I have manage to make baby steps in my creating my hand made creating cards from my photos. I am hoping to have a good variety ready for a Christmas sale here in November. Also trying to slowly get some sort of sales set up on the internet. So much to do there and very little time for it. More a winter project.

To speed things up just last week my satellite internet was upgraded to a new system that is way faster and even cheaper. To add to that I had purchased a new laptop ( Acer/M Intel core i5 ultra book) last winter and also now for the first time in 5 years have a wireless router. The speed of getting stuff done on my new computer is a hundred times fast then my old one. Hubby now has his own computer and I have my own. He mostly only reads his newspaper on it. I also got an iPod which I love. I think I finally have all the apps and everything I need to sync on my computer and iPod. So while laying on the couch in the greenhouse watching TV I can still get a few things done with my iPod and still get my internet connection in there. I was so tired before to even sit at a computer in the evening, but laying down with a little handheld I can handle. So just need to get another blog out at my other 2 blogs God's Garden of Nature and Quotography by Here I Am Carrie and then I can finally get out and catch up visiting all my blogging friends which I hope will go much faster then it has in the last 5 years. But always trying to catch a moment here and there to read here enjoying our new deck extension.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer or winterand have a Good Morning… Good Afternoon… Good Night…Whatever it is to you.

21 comments:

I hope this takes. It's so good to see your post. I didn't get the photos, of course. I'm just happy to be here enjoying your post. I got to see the lovely flowers, but nothing else. As I blogged today, I'll most likely close my blog and get a new one. I'm putting my friends whose blogs I get to visit on my faves. I explained in my post today about the trials of being hacked.

This is such a lovely post, with Sheaba, Cole, your new family donkey and dog, flowers blooming so brightly, husband so stubborn. .. aren't they all ???, and thoughts sent for your dear friend. Enjoy sitting on the deck Carrie, great you have a new laptop, faster internet, dreams have become reality. Take care, as your summer closes down for another year, greetings from Jean

Oh Annie is beautiful love the photo of her head on the table. I do hope Annie's owner recovers well and is back to enjoying life and Annie. Prayers to her.WOW you have been busy and keeping your poor hubby busy:) that is a good thing:)LOVE your photos have fun there is still a lot of summer left. B

I dont know how you keep up over the mountains and yet sometimes I dont know how I do what I do either. I loved the donkey. sooo cute.The dogs sure are having a blast.I will pray for your friend. Lovely update and I sure enjoyed my visit here as I always do. Much Love

Were off to a wedding this weekend. My nice has a brilliant photographer working for her so I get to bring my phone only if I want. Im excited. I do love taking photos with my phone . It brings get joy to me. Have a most fantastic weekend hiking running , and walking. Have you tried oils to keep the bugs away. I have a few recipes if you need some mixed with water this time around . I like them and work for me but not eveyone.

if i had a donkey come visit me, my kids would think we're in heaven. If i lived in a place, half as beautiful as the landscape I see in your pics, I'd too think the same. Hoping, praying your friend recovers.

What a super post Carrie, it almost persuades me to come back and have another go, but as you know I'm taking the lazy way out and doing the FB thing. Thanks for putting Jenny D in touch I'm so relieved she's still with us, anyhow I'm off out with Ruby for a late walk as it rained heavy to-day and put everything all back to front. catch you later.

The old homestead is interesting -- hope you got some good pics of it's construction. The skills in building these are far between There is one near us here of logs probably 100 years old. Apropos: The metal roof will serve you well.

Prayers for your neighbor. Its good she is getting immediate treatment. "Nip it in the bud" as some say, and treat early. Cancer is not the beast it was several years ago and most are treatable if not curable. (I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma --a cancer of the bone marrow cells -- 3 years ago, had 18 days in St. Louis for a Stem cell transplant and have been OK till now when some protein numbers are going up; so now I am getting some chemo 2 days a week (drive to clinic). But this leads to my next point: Talk about it with you neighbor to see how much she wants to tell. Some (myself included) can bore you for hours on the details of a stem cell transplant and other medical adventures. Others (a friend of ours who had the lung cancer, just wanted to e-mail jokes, punny stuff, and not really talk about it) would rather talk about something else. My sister in law works a cancer center in Ohio and we compare how the infusion centers work -- music, noise, visitors,smelly foods brought in, etc. So that is interesting to me.

I really enjoyed reading your blog and looking at the photos, I really like Annie! I am having a busy time here too and sadly neglecting getting round to peoples blogs, but I will catch up with everyone soon I hope. When summer finally got here it was really, it has cooled down a bit now but still nice :) Enjoy your decking before the weather gets colder :)

Oh Annie is adorable I do hope her owner continues to do well. I will send healing thoughts her way. Beautiful wedding and photos. Oh dear you and your husband are so busy I can relate. Blogging does take a beating in the summer. I almost miss winter where things tend to slow down around here at least. Enjoy the good weather days. Give Annie a pet next time you see her for me. B

Sure looks like you had a busy summer - and that's when time run fast, and suddenly summer is over. But it did look like you had a lot of fun, too. Sorry to read about Annie, my best wishes goes to her. Your wedding photos are great, and, yes, you did captured a lot of wonderful moments. Good luck with you new computer and internet access.

Come visit my Facebook page

Translate

About Me

My world is tucked away in a valley in British Columbia Canada, where my husband and I spend our days living close to nature. I enjoy raiseing a lot of my own food and love to be surrounded by flowers. Being creative for me is capturing the beauty that is always to be found with my camera and sharing thoughts, quotes, poems and stories along with my photos.